Network user usage profiling

A network usage profile handling system for use in a network comprising a plurality of customer-side network nodes, each respective customer-side network node being associated with a customer and communicatively coupled with an access network by which the customer receives access to network services provided by a network service provider, each customer being further associated with a set of customer devices available for use in communicating with the respective customer-side network node, the set of customer devices comprising a set of active devices currently in operative communication with the respective customer-side network node and a set of inactive devices not currently in operative communication with the respective customer-side network node, the system comprising:

• a node data aggregator module adapted to generate a set of current devices-by-node records, each of the set of current devices-by-node records being associated with a respective customer-side network node and generated by:
• receiving device data from the set of active devices currently in operative communication with the respective customer-side network node;
• processing the device data to determine an active devices profile comprising a device type for each of the set of active devices currently in operative communication with the respective customer-side network node, wherein processing the device data comprises parsing a device type indicator from at least one of a browser type, a user-agent, or a data protocol, the device type indicator being parsed from the device data and estimating the device type as a function of the browser type;
• receiving a timestamp temporally relating to the device data;
• receiving a node identifier identifying the respective customer-side network node;
• and
• associating the timestamp and the node identifier with the active devices profile to generate a current devices-by-node record, defining the set of active devices in operative communication with the respective customer-side network node identified by the node identifier at the time identified by the timestamp;
• a usage profile data store, adapted to store a devices-by-node log comprising a plurality of devices-by-node records generated over a time duration, the set of current devices-by-node records being some of the plurality of devices-by-node records;
• and
• a usage profile module, communicatively coupled with the usage profile data store and adapted to generate a network usage profile by analyzing the devices-by-node log to generate devices-by-node profiles for each of the plurality of customer-side network nodes as a function of the plurality of devices-by-node records generated over at least a portion of the time duration, the devices-by-node profiles defining a set of data handling capabilities for each of the set of customer devices and at least an estimation of the set of customer devices available for use in communicating with each of the customer-side network nodes during the at least a portion of the time duration, wherein the network usage profile comprises the devices-by-node profiles;
• and
• a content source configured to target content over the access network to at least one of the set of active devices as a function of the devices-by-node profile such that the at least one of the set of active devices is capable of handling the content according to the set of data handling capabilities.

A computational system comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer-readable program embodied therein for generating a network usage profile defining at least an estimation of a set of customer devices available for use in communicating with a customer-side network node located at a customer side of an access network, the set of customer devices comprising a set of active devices currently in operative communication with the customer-side network node and a set of inactive devices not currently in operative communication with the customer-side network node, the computer-readable program including instructions for providing the controlled access to the network characteristic data in accordance with the following:

• receiving device data from the set of active devices currently in operative communication with the customer-side network node;
• processing the device data to determine an active devices profile comprising a device type for each of the set of active devices, wherein processing the device data comprises parsing a device type indicator from at least one of a browser type, a user-agent, or a data protocol, the device type indicator being parsed from the device data and estimating the device type as a function of the browser type;
• receiving a timestamp temporally relating to the device data received in the receiving device data step;
• receiving a node identifier identifying the customer-side network node;
• associating the timestamp and the node identifier with the active devices profile to generate a current devices-by-node record, the current devices-by-node record defining the set of active devices communicatively coupled with the customer-side network node identified by the node identifier at the time identified by the timestamp;
• logging the current devices-by-node record in a devices-by-node log, the devices-by-node log comprising a plurality of devices-by-node records generated over a time duration;
• analyzing the devices-by-node log to generate a devices-by-node profile as a function of the plurality of devices-by-node records generated over at least a portion of the time duration, the devices-by-node profile defining a set of data handling capabilities for each of the set of customer devices and at least an estimation of the set of customer devices available for use in communicating with the customer-side network node during the at least a portion of the time duration, wherein the network usage profile comprises the devices-by-node profile;
• and
• targeting content over the access network to at least one of the set of active devices as a function of the devices-by-node profile such that the at least one of the set of active devices is capable of handling the content according to the set of data handling capabilities.